Concealed weapon permit review finds mistakes in Florida

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, center, meets with members of the media June 28, 2018, after a Florida Republican gubernatorial primary debate at the Republican Sunshine Summit in Kissimmee, Fla.(Photo: John Raoux/AP)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A 2012 internal investigation released this week to The Associated Press found that 48 Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services employees made mistakes while issuing concealed weapon permits and armed security guard or similar licenses.

One employee resigned during the investigation, one was fired and others received suspensions or written reprimands. In all, two concealed weapons permits and one armed security guard license were revoked, according to department spokeswoman Jennifer Meale.

Department Commissioner Adam Putnam, a Republican candidate for governor, was criticized last month after acknowledging that the agency revoked 291 permits awarded in 2016 and 2017 and fired an employee last year.

Political opponents are using the 2012 investigation, which was released after a records request, to build on that criticism.

"This is another example of what happens when you put career politicians in executive positions," said Brad Herold, who is running Republican U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis' campaign for governor. "Adam Putnam has clearly been spending too much time running for his next elected office and not enough time doing his job."

The Putnam campaign said the problem discovered in 2012 started under a previous administration and he took steps to fix it.

"Adam Putnam has proactively led efforts to hold government employees accountable and took action to address this issue which began before he was elected. Thanks to Adam Putnam's leadership, employee violations at FDACS have been reduced by 59 percent since 2011," campaign spokeswoman Meredith Beatrice said.

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The department's inspector general began an investigation in August 2012 after it learned an employee issued an armed security guard license to a felon. The employee's supervisor said there had been past problems with the employee issuing licenses to felons and counselling occurred beginning in 2008, but no formal disciplinary action was taken. Putnam took office in January 2011.

The employee resigned during the investigation, which found he had issued 35 licenses without looking at the applications or reviewing arrest reports. At that point, the inspector general decided to review the work of all employees who processed license applications and renewals.

Computer records from July 2010 to July 2012 were reviewed to see if employees opened license applications. Investigators could also tell if only the first page of applications was reviewed while subsequent pages were ignored.

Of the 47 other employees who failed to follow proper review procedures, the error rate varied widely, from an employee who reviewed 2,219 applications and failed in one case to look at the second page of a security officer license renewal, to a woman fired after it was learned she approved 3,625 licenses without a full review, including 99 concealed weapons permit applications that were never viewed. Her error rate was nearly 13 percent of the 28,275 licenses processed.

Several employees blamed the errors on computer glitches, while other said phone calls and other distractions might have caused them to make mistakes.

The inspector general made several recommendations since implemented by the department, including random checks of approved licenses, improved employee training and weekly reports reviewed by supervisors to ensure employees are complying with licensing procedures.

"What these IG reports show is that we learned of a problem, evaluated it thoroughly, took action to hold employees accountable and implemented checks and balances," Inspector General Ron Russo said in a statement issued by the department.

Still, Democrats running for governor said they were disturbed to hear another example of mistakes made on gun permits under Putnam's watch. Putnam has previously been a target of gun safety advocates for calling himself a "proud ... sellout" to the National Rifle Association and for pushing to make it easier to get concealed weapons permits.

"It's incredible Adam Putnam didn't catch the gross negligence occurring in his own department earlier. What's even more incredible is that after he learned his department was issuing armed security guard and concealed weapon permits to felons, Putnam spent years working to weaken our state's gun laws even more," former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham said. "It's disgraceful to see NRA sell out Adam Putnam even running for governor. Negligence under his watch made our state less safe."

The campaign for Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum said he is "alarmed at the steady drumbeat of revelations" coming from Putnam's office.

"It's incredibly brazen to run on your record of passing out concealed carry permits when in fact you were putting Floridians at risk," Gillum spokesman Geoff Burgan said.